Henri Reynard Speaks Out

War Or Disease?

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One of the things that I admire most about the leadership in the world is its singular ability to focus on the problem it perceives as dangerous. The fact that the problem focused on is almost never the worst one faced is beside the point. Of course like most people I really don't care what finally kills me. I am ecstatic that I have lived this long and hugged my wife and children and all of my grandchildren this many times. Make no mistake, I do not intend to go gently into that good night, I will rant or beg or scream and fight if I think it will help put off that last breath. Sucking air is a long established habit and one I do not intend to break any time soon. If it is a lingering disease I intend to fight it every inch of the way. If it is a stroke that takes away my brain, I hope my body is allowed to follow soon. It isn't that much use any more and without my brain functioning fully it will only be a carrot. I prefer a pepper, which goes better with a tomato. But the inevitability of my personal encounter with death is well established in my mind.

My acceptance of personal mortality came relatively early in life, I nearly died of Whooping Cough followed by Pneumonia in my sixth year. The disease took a whole winter, recovery took a whole spring and summer but by fall I was healthy again. I never forgot that I had cheated death only due to a shot of penicillin and a strong body that fought well beyond what my six-year-old mind could bring to the battle. Lots of people died of Whooping Cough throughout the history of our nation. Many of them were the original inhabitants of this continent, the American Indians, who had no natural resistance to that disease. When we moved in we brought our diseases and they killed far more of the indigenous population than all of the "Indian" wars added together. That has been true since the first human Diaspora, back when war was still being invented. Disease has always killed more of us than war and weapons could ever manage. Of course disease has always been used as a weapon once the understanding of what caused disease reached the attention of those who prosecute war.

I would rather tell a joke with my last breath, if I could please. Life is funny, death even more so to those of us who think that humanity is there for our amusement. Life's little pills are best taken with a sense of humor, particularly about the seriousness with which our fellow humans pursue their ends. Not that I am incapable of ranting as much as anyone. Indignation is one of the great tools for living life in a state of irrational exuberance. Life is irrational anyway, exuberance just adds the zest and spice that make it fun. Since I have it on good authority that "happiness is the good of man", I try to live that message as often as I can. My wife calls me Mr. Sunshine when I can't see the light side of things; she helps keep me honest and amuses me greatly. She also wonders at my ability to write the most depressing piece and recover within minutes without any hangover. Once I have passed the problem on to whoever reads that piece, it no longer occupies all of my attention. Shared problems are easier to bear, that may be why misery is said to love company. In my experience most miserable people do not live within a circle of people they can talk to when they need company.

Back to where we were before my mind wandered, "happiness is a warm gun" or maybe a warm microbe or virus. I believe "The universe is trying to kill me", as Joseph Heller noted in "Catch 22". I have decided that I might as well understand and catalog its attempts for my own edification. It makes me less concerned about terrorism, after all that is then just another manifestation of the universe's essential hostility to all life. I am certain that there is nothing personal about it. It lets me enjoy the dance of microbes and viruses through my body. Their need for a warm host is impersonal too. And finally that knowledge helps me stay alive without taking life too seriously, after all no one gets out of this alive anyway.

Life violates the law of entropy; which states that all systems tend towards more disorder over time. Now the heat death of the universe is probably a trillion years off. But the universe is rigged to oppose order, and life is all about ordered molecules dancing together in the creation of great beauty. Art, music love and all the other creations of intelligent life stand-alone against the tide of universal loss of order. Life and only life organizes molecules for a time and defies the very nature of time and space. Life is more beautiful than anything else in this vast array of molecules and atoms colliding without any more meaning than an explosion. Only intelligent life can create the ordered molecules that go into the creation of a bomb. Only intelligent life can conceive of the idea that weapons can destroy an enemy before they can destroy you. Only intelligent life can create the gases and nuclear bombs that comprise the WMD we are so concerned about. Only intelligent life can become paranoid trying to protect the unprotectable. In a universe where the basic laws of nature are stacked against us security is always an illusion!

So it really doesn't matter what gets me in the end, a truck running me over at ninety-nine, while running away from an irate husband. A virus next week, a car accident any time in the next forty years, a microbe or a terrorist any time in the next sixty years or just plain exhaustion from worrying about it. Any of the above could do the job and it will never matter to me after it is over. But it will matter to a lot of other people if it is a war or an epidemic that could be stopped by organized action. You see, I think the universe's hostility to life is enough for the human race to handle without encouraging one person to try to kill another. I think that any process that we can carry out that teaches that essential truth to other people; is good. I think that any process that teaches that it is OK to hate and kill in a preemptive war is bad. I also know that preemptive war violates the rule that only self-defense excuses violence against another person, religion or nation. That is the rule we need to use to maintain peace, war is to be used for clear cases of self-defense only. We need that rule because the universe is always at war with those of us who are alive; it needs no help from us. God bless and keep you safe in these trying times.